Requiem of Shadows
by eidolondestroyer
Summary: Ansem has been destroyed, and Kingdom Hearts has been sealed off forever. Now all Sora has to do is open the door to the light. And yet, the closer he comes to finding the light, the further he steeps himself in darkness.
1. Crossroads

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

            Sora stood at the beginning of the crossroads. There were paths to his left, his right, and in front of him, and all appeared to lead to the same thing: complete blackness. He tried to decide which path was best, which path would lead him further towards the door to the light. But, none of the paths seemed to do so. Recently, it seemed like the more he struggled to find the path to the door, the further he separated himself from it. He looked to the sky in his indecisiveness, and solemnly watched a star wink out of existence. Nothing was like before, and all their hard work, their blood, sweat, and tears, it had been for nothing and it had accomplished nothing.

*Flashback*

            Sora walked leisurely down the dirt road, his hands behind his head, happy that Ansem was gone, and that the worlds had been restored. A part of him kept nagging him about Riku and King Mickey's whereabouts, but his relief currently drowned that part out. Kairi was safe, as were his friends, old and new. He looked to both sides and smiled at Donald and Goofy. He could tell that they were worried about the King, but like him, they were too elated to show any signs of that worry. The battles they had fought thus far had been horrible, especially for Sora. The hardest battle was easily fighting Riku the first time. The second time he did battle with his best friend, it had been Ansem he had been fighting; yet the first time it truly had been Riku. Sora had struggled with himself to even be able to attack Riku, let alone keep up with him.

            But that was all over now, and Riku had returned to the light. Sora glanced at his two companions again, throwing them another smile, and receiving a smile in return. Tomorrow he could let his anxiety over Riku and King Mickey take over, but today he had to be able to celebrate his victories, not his defeats.

            "Well now what do we do?" Donald then asked, and while it was a perfectly valid question, Sora disliked it. It seemed to make the air around them heavier, and Sora let his hands drop to his sides before slumping slightly.

            "We've gotta find Riku and King Mickey." Sora replied despite knowing that the question was a rhetorical one. Of course they were going to find Riku and King Mickey, it was the only thing they could do.

            "But uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Goofy then chimed in, and Sora thought the question over for a second before realizing that he had no answer. The trio of companions then collectively let their heads drop and make an exasperated sigh.

            It was then that a yellow dog began to walk by with a somewhat perky gait. Sora raised his head along with Donald and Goofy to look at this dog, and the latter two seemed to recognize him. Sora could have sworn he'd seen that dog somewhere else too.

            "Pluto?" Donald asked, somewhat angry and somewhat in disbelief.

            "Hey Pluto. Where have you been?" Goofy asked as well, and Pluto turned his head upon hearing them, revealing the envelope tucked neatly in his mouth. Donald immediately took notice of this.

            "Hey!" Donald exclaimed, noticing not only the envelope but also the seal that adorned it.

            "Gawrsh, that's the king's seal!" Goofy said when he too noticed this. Hearing this Sora immediately was able to pick up his hopes.

            "Hey, have you seen King Mickey?" Sora asked hopefully. Pluto took a second to process the question before turning and running off not to get away, but to lead them away.

            "Guys, let's go!" Sora said, his hopes flying high now. He began to run after Pluto, and Donald and Goofy fell into place behind him. The three began to laugh again, and while Sora knew that the road ahead of him was long, everything would be all right. The door to the light would reveal itself to him.__

*End flashback*

            Except nothing had been all right, and the door to the light continued to elude him. And now he was all alone, wondering which path to follow. Which path led to the light, and which paths deceived him? They all looked the exact same, with no distinguishing characteristics, no landmarks, not even a turn or slight deviation. They all went straight out and into the distant horizon, where the darkness of night swallowed them completely. He would let chance decide then, and perhaps fate as well would play a role in his choosing. The only direction a person could go in life is forward, and therefore Sora would go forward.

            His gaze wandered back down from the night sky to the ground, and he began to walk on the path that led forward, on the path that would hopefully lead to the light.

            He walked slowly, dramatically, through the rain, his bangs of hair constantly getting in his face and obscuring his vision. But it was best that way, for no one could look him in the eye. He didn't want any reminders of what had been, what he had been. He wanted to be cleansed of his past, just as these rains cleansed the ground beneath them of dirt and grime.

            He continued to walk, his path dimly lit by the neon lights of the buildings and the faint glow of the street lights. This place, it reminded him of another place, somewhere he had been before, a place that was part of his past. He quickly repressed the thought, repressed the memories. His past was no longer a part of him. All that he was, all that he embodied, was his present self, not his past self. He needed to let go, and yet he couldn't.

            As he walked he felt the eyes upon him, and he stopped, standing absolutely still in the rain, the only sound being the rain softly hitting the hood of his raincoat. His eyes moved around, seeing the Neo-Shadows rising from the ground, challenging him to fight, hoping that they could finally bring him down. This time their numbers were incredible, almost as much as last time even, but they were making a grave mistake in attacking him. He bade forth his weapons, and both of his hands were suddenly occupied by Keyblades. In the one hand was the Oathkeeper, in the other was the Oblivion. Keyblade of light and Keyblade of darkness, clashing forces that somehow worked in perfect harmony.

            He spun the Keyblades quickly, goading the Heartless to attack him, and as he did blue flames in the symbol of the Heartless surrounded him, dividing him from the Heartless. He looked up to the top of one of the many buildings, and he saw the figure, appearing minute due to the distance between them. He almost smirked when he saw the figure, but he fought that impulse and instead opened his mouth and quietly spoke, knowing that the other person would be able to hear him loud and clear.

            "Where's Sora?"

**Author's Note**- Yeah, yeah, this idea is really, really unoriginal, but I'll try to leave my own distinct mark upon it. Anyways, the basic frame of the plot is coming from the "Deep Dive" FMV, which was one of the many additions to KH: Final Mix, a.k.a. "How Squaresoft Screws over the Americans". Fortunately, there are a lot of places from which you can download the FMV. I suggest you go download it if you're a KH fan (and really, you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't one), it's a really cool FMV. "Another Side, Another Story" is nothing compared to this. Oh, but you'll be asking yourself a LOT of questions after seeing it if you do.


	2. Deep Dive

Point of View: ???

            _There is power within you._ I know._ It is not of light, nor is it of darkness. _I know. _It is a power that begrudges them both, and it is a power that governs the two, keeping them separate. _I know. _It is a power so absolute that neither the light nor the dark dares to incur its wrath._ I know._ You have that power._ I know._ You are that power._ I know.

_            Yet you're merely a shell. _I wasn't always._ You're a nobody. _I was once somebody. _You're non-existent. _I once simply was. _And what are you now? _A shell, a nobody, a non-existent one. _But… _I have great power. _So what does that make you? _An unknown factor in the battle to come. _And the battle is? _The battle between light and darkness. _And what factor are you? _The in-between. The representative of the world in its truthful form. _You won't be able to begrudge the light and the darkness forever. _I know. But soon, I will be. _And what will you be? _That I don't know. _And how will you become existent? _The gathering.

Point of View: Third Person

            He took a long glance around him, watching as the already large masses of Heartless grew in size, occupying not only the ground now but the sides of the buildings as well. They were quite simply everywhere now, and this was also now the largest group of Heartless that he had faced. They didn't plan on letting him live, that was for sure, but he didn't plan on letting them live either. He closed his eyes briefly to focus, and when he opened them again the blue flames guarding him from the Heartless had died down and the Heartless began to swarm him.

            He made a quick slash with the Oblivion, and watched as a Heartless was reduced to a miniature explosion of shadows. He quickly twisted and kicked outward, his shoe slamming into one of the many Heartless. He then whipped around the Oathkeeper and finished the Heartless off. The Heartless as a whole then began maneuvering around him, prepared to work together. That was what he hated about the Neo-Heartless, they were so damn cooperative.

            Deciding that it was time to stop holding anything back he lashed out at one of the Heartless with both of his swords, electricity playing through them as he did so. When that Heartless had backed off he noticed several others leap into the air. He looked on as the Heartless leapt at him and he flipped backwards, crossing his Keyblades over his chest to prevent doing damage to himself. He landed perfectly and watched the Heartless hit the ground before coming up to leap at him again. He too mustered all of his strength and jumped high into the air, slashing through Heartless as he went up. As he reached the apex of his jump he twisted and threw the Oathkeeper into the air. It destroyed two Heartless as it went up before arcing back towards him, destroying two more Heartless as it returned. He jumped yet again, this time jumping a far distance to the staircases of one of the many buildings in the area. Rather noticeably it was the building _he_ was on top of.

            Darkness, darkness was everywhere. It was forced upon him, forced upon him by himself. He could see and know the light again, but he was not ready for it. So he would live in darkness for now. And to maintain that constant darkness, that blindness to light, he wore a blindfold over his eyes. Yet, despite the fact that he controlled the veil of darkness around him, he often wondered if it was he who was keeping away from the light, or the light keeping away from him. It didn't matter, he was amongst the shadows no more, and as he stayed away from the light, he had fallen in-between. And it was through doing that in which he gained the third power, a power by far more dangerous than darkness, and yet by far more stable than light.

            But all of this was irrelevant to the matters at hand, he could hear the Keyblades passing through the Heartless, he could even hear them whistling through the air. His hearing had been able to make up for the blindness he imposed upon himself. All of his other senses were very good as well, and when he did choose to remove the blindfold, yet he would do so only in the most dire of circumstances, he became an indestructible force that obliterated everything that moved.

            As he continued to listen to the battle he heard the sound of an impact against the side of the building, followed by the swift movements up the side of the building. It was his turn.

            He began to drop and as he did so he extended his arm and opened his hand, and before long he was clasping one of the Keyblades. It had been a while since he had held one, especially this one. From the texture of the hilt he knew it to be the Oblivion.

            As he fell his hearing dropped slightly as he could hear his own body passing through the air, dropping downward with constantly increasing speed. He was still able to hear the sounds of feet running up the building and past him, and he was still perfectly able to hear a third figure sailing through the air before landing hard on top of the building.

            The pale moon cast an eerie glow on the beach, extending the shadows that were all over it. The shadows criss-crossed to form an elaborate lattice of shadows that seemed artistic somehow. Beyond the beach was a perfectly still ocean. Some tiny waves slowly limped through the ocean towards the beach before collapsing upon themselves. The waves rushed in onto the sand from before retreating again, taking with them a tiny portion of the beach, and that piece of the beach went out into tranquil waters. The place seemed so calm, perhaps unnervingly so, but the true state of affairs on the beach and out into the ocean were anything but calm. Just out of sight the sea was a nightmare of strong gusts and huge waves, and the water lurched about in an unpredictable manner. On the beach the disruption of tranquility was by far more subtle.

            A robed figure stepped forward along the beach, walking over to another robed figure with a mysterious aura. The latter kept just about everything to himself, and he very rarely actually talked. He had a way about him, a way of communicating without need of words.

            As the first figure made his way across the beach the second figure turned to him, and he actually spoke.

            "I've been to see him. He looks just like you."

            The first figure closed his eyes in thought.

            Kairi sat at the dock of the main island of the Destiny Islands archipelago. Her feet dangled lazily over the water, and she looked out into the vast sea. For three years now she had waited, and for three years Sora and Riku had been away, gone with no signs of coming back. They probably were trying, she knew they had to be, but it was impossible. They could never get back, not while the borders between the worlds remained. There was quite simply no hope of their return until the barriers broke again, but that would do no good. If the barriers broke that would mean that the door to the world was open, and odds were that the exact same thing would happen again. She would see Sora again, but soon enough he would be jerked away from her, just like with before…

            A single tear rolled down her eye before it dropped into the water. Just as it hit and the ripples began to spread a blue streak shot across the sky. She looked up and witnessed a meteor slowly come down, crashing to the ground. She stood up and ran to the beach, and just as the first meteor disappeared from sight another took its place, and it was soon joined by others. The sky was soon filled with blue streaks, and Kairi's memory recalled something. The world borders, if they collapsed, they would break apart into the same material as gummi blocks, and those would then fall back to the planet, an event that would be witnessed as a meteor shower…

            He continued to plummet, falling downward with increasing speed, somehow managing to know where the Heartless were and slicing through them on his descent. He soon knew that he was about to hit the ground and flipped over so that he landed feet first. He felt the massive recoil from his landing run through him, but he came out from the fall unscathed.

            Unfortunately, he had landed right in the frying pan. Listening to what occurred around him he heard the multitudes of Heartless attempt to get up to him unnoticed. He listened to what happened, and he noticed one of the sounds disappear, not from being destroyed, but from retreating back into the ground. He waited several seconds, and then flipped backwards just as a Heartless leapt out from the ground underneath him, and he kept the Oblivion extended. The blade tore into the Heartless's underside and he heard its final doom. Upon landing he thrust the Oblivion forward, destroying an additional Heartless before spinning it and jamming it into a Heartless behind him effortlessly. After doing that he made a quick circular slash and killed a number of Heartless.

            It was at that point he heard something else moving through the air at an incredible velocity before it slammed into the ground and exploded. As he was flung back an incredible, deafening roar silenced everything.

            Mickey brought his Keyblade around and fought off another one of the Heartless. The whole town was overrun by them, and he was unsure if they would make it this time. The odds were staggering, and even warriors with as much experience as them were unprepared for an attack of this magnitude. At first it had seemed fairly routine, but then more and more Heartless had revealed themselves, and now there must have been millions of them.

            Nearby him was a figure whose identity was completely hidden by a raincoat. Mickey had been shocked when he first ran across him again, but then again, he should have expected it to happen. Maybe it was fate. Regardless, he had changed so much since Mickey had last seen him. Back then he had the power of light on his side, but now the light seemed to have abandoned him, or maybe he had abandoned the light.

            Mickey then witnessed an object pass by with ridiculous speed before crashing into the ground and exploding. He looked on as the explosion wiped out countless Heartless, and as one of his companions was thrown around like a rag doll by the same explosion. Soon enough another object streaked by, this one hitting a building, and it passed through the walls as though they were paper. After it had come out the other side of the building a mere half-second passed by before it too hit the ground and exploded. The building it had passed through soon erupted into flames as the power generators overheated and exploded. Soon enough another four meteors crashed into various parts of the town, and fire began to spread everywhere. Buildings collapsed and the chaos of the town grew and grew as everything was ravaged. Heartless were being wiped out in the tens of thousands, and they decided to cut their losses and retreat. Mickey watched on as they sank back into the ground and skulked away, defeated again.

            The victory would not last long for Mickey and his group however, if they did not escape the town. The very building they were was on fire, with the neon lights it had going off and the flames slowly creeping up the side of the building. The flames, they were so very much like the Heartless. They consumed everything they could, and yet their appetite for destruction and chaos was never sated, nor would it be. They had an eternal hunger to disrupt order and tranquility. Mickey could only hope that like fire, they would eventually run out of fuel to continue burning.


	3. Fragments of Memory

Sora sat on a tree stump, one of many in the area through which he was walking. He believed that the area had once been a lush, green forest with vibrant and myriad shades of green and supporting countless animals. He could imagine it all too well, but now, the forest was gone. Destroyed by others, and with it went the rest of the wildlife within it. That was the problem with life, it just…died.

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Flashback

Sora came to a halt, unable to go any further. He leaned over, breathing deeply and feeling ready to faint. Pluto looked at him expectantly, thinking that Sora would soon be able to go again. Sora shook his head, refusing to have to go on any further for the day. They had been going on for miles upon miles with nothing in sight. Beyond them was merely a vast stretch of plains with a dirt road carving up the middle of it and twisting insanely. Sora was ready to believe that he was going nowhere, that Pluto was just leading them on a wild goose chase.

Looking to either side of him Sora saw Donald and Goofy, both of whom were as tired as he was. Pluto soon realized this and sat down, stretching out his forelegs and through his mannerisms seemed to say that he too was tired. Sora collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, knowing that he wouldn't have to worry about getting comfy. He then put his hands behind his head to support it and make sure it didn't get too dirty. He watched as Donald then walked over to Pluto and snatched the envelope with the king's seal from the dog's mouth. He quickly opened the envelope and removed the letter within it. Donald's eyes scanned back and forth across the letter, and occasionally his eyes would widen a bit before resuming their normal width, then widening again. After a couple of minutes he was finished reading the letter and plopped down onto the ground, something in his eyes conveying a feeling of hopelessness. He shook his head slowly before bowing it to the ground.

"Donald, what's wrong?" Sora asked, for what else was there to ask? Donald merely shook his head again and his head bowed down a little further. He sighed, and then lifted his head slightly to talk.

"The Heartless, they've… King Mickey's seen them again. But… they're stronger now, smarter too. Apparently there are more now than ever before." Donald dropped his head back down again, disappointed and disillusioned. "Maybe…maybe our journey meant nothing after all."

"Don't say that!" Goofy cried out, his expression shocked and appalled. "Yup, our journey was for something. Ansem's gone, and Kingdom Hearts was sealed. That's… that has to count for something." By the end of his declaration though, even the eternally cheerful Goofy seemed unable to believe his words. Sora felt ready to give up as well.

_Remember Sora, you will be the one to open the door to the light. _The words flashed through Sora's mind, and he remembered hearing those words before, earlier that same day. But he believed them no more. He had fought so hard, only to lose everything from his old life, and now it was for nothing?

End flashback

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Sora sighed. He should have given up then and there. Maybe then, had he done so, they'd still be with him.

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Thoughts slowly began to circulate through Riku's mind again. He groaned as he realized how sore his body was. Everywhere there was stiffness, soreness, and any imaginable type of discomfort. But…he was lucky to be able to feel such discomfort. He began to wonder how he had lived. There was an explosion and he had been thrown back by it. It made no sense.

"So you're up." Riku winced as the noise flooded his ears, and he identified the speaker as Mickey through the high pitch. He had long ago learned to identify people by their voice, for he no longer saw. Not with the blindfold encompassing his eyes, shutting out any light.

"We were worried about you. For a while there it didn't seem like you were going to make it." another voice stated. Riku noted the concern in the other speaker's voice. Riku really must have been on the edge this time. Regardless, he sat up in spite of his stiffness. He reached out with his hand, searching through the darkness for something to grab onto. Soon enough he found a chair and hauled himself up with its aid before sitting down on it. He listened as Mickey nimbly climbed up the chair next to him before the other voice spoke.

"The explosions were caused by a meteor shower. Not just any meteor shower at that. Do you find it at all possible that the barrier to this world has been broken?" Fleeting thoughts of hope raced through Riku's mind before being dispelled.

"I know what you're thinking, but it would never work. We don't have a gummi ship to get off of this world. That the barrier was broken works against us."

"Mickey is right." the other voice pitched in. "This whole time we've been trying to contain the Heartless. Now that the barrier is broken, they can escape into other worlds. The chances of our failing have increased dramatically. And before you say we could build a gummi ship, the gummi blocks are probably buried over thirty feet into the rubble. We could spend years searching without finding anything, let alone enough gummi blocks to build a ship." Riku didn't answer to that. He knew the reality of the situation; this was just driving the point home.

Riku then stood up and walked away. He knew the halls of their makeshift home by heart, and he easily navigated them until going through a wooden door, shutting it behind him. After doing so he ran a hand through his hair before clutching at the blindfold. He proceeded to remove it, and after he had done so he slowly opened his eyes. As always, he opened them to a complete darkness. Riku had chosen this room because within it he could create a state of total darkness, and he still had forced himself to live under the burden of his darkness. Not until he was worthy would he stop doing so.

He then heard the door open, and it was quite clear that whoever was opening it was trying to be quiet. Considering Riku's amplified hearing, their efforts failed miserably. Riku shut his eyes tightly just as the light switch flipped on. He heard the disappointed sigh emitted by the person who had entered the room, and he then took his blindfold and tied it around his head again.

"Riku…" the invader began, "you can't live like this forever. Sooner or later you'll have to open up again."

"When I have to I will. Until then, when I have finally let go of my darkness, I refuse to forget. You may want to forget your past, you may need to forget your past, but I need to hold on to mine. Without it, I will surely fall."

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Kairi sat in front of the door. She had been there for hours, confounded by the door. She knew that the barrier to the world was broken, and as such the door to the world should have been open, but when she attempted to open the door it did not budge in the slightest. She had tried opening it numerous ways, pushing against it, ramming against it, pulling against it. Everything, but it just wouldn't open.

_The door may be unsealed, but it is not yet unlocked. _Kairi jumped upward as the words resonated within her mind, as though someone was speaking to her. She cast furtive glances into each darkened corner of the cave, attempting to identify who had put the thought into her mind, but finding only shadows.

_Without the key, it is just a door, with no beyond. _At this point, an intense fear coursed through Kairi. The voice she was hearing was undoubtedly coming from within her own mind, yet she knew that the thoughts were not hers.

_You alone do not possess the power to remove the obstruction._

"Who's there?" Kairi finally ventured to ask. This voice, it was so very strange, yet there was a familiarity present within it.

_I, however, can allow you to pass._

"What?!"

_All you must do…_

"What? Do what? Please! I'll do anything! I just… just want to see them again." Kairi's voice tailed off towards the end as more somber thoughts passed through her mind. It had been too long since she had seen them. Three years now?

_Cast off the flesh._

_Unite with the origin of hearts._

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Riku walked outside of the house, keeping a deliberate pace to ensure he didn't lose his way. As he felt the unyielding pavement beneath his feet he knew he was still on the correct path. Like always, he didn't carry around a weapon of any sort. Quite frankly, by himself he qualified as a weapon, and should too many Heartless dare to cross his path; the world was filled with makeshift weapons.

Yet even as he walked in confidence of safety, that same confidence became the source of overwhelmingly morbid thoughts. In what sort of perverted world did a person learn to see everything as a weapon?

Then again, this wasn't a world in the normal sense. The world was simply a meaningless shell, the end result of the Heartless's destruction. How Riku and Mickey had wound up here after escaping Kingdom Hearts was a mystery unto itself, one that Riku tended to think about each and every day.

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Flashback

Riku had managed to learn the true definition of frustration over the past several days. He had taken into account the possibility that he'd never leave Kingdom Hearts and that eventually he might even fall to a Heartless and join their ranks. He hadn't, however, quite thought of the possibility of a perky talking mouse keeping his hopes up that he'd find a way out only to come back empty-handed. Riku couldn't quite fathom how he was somehow just as disappointed each time a failure to find a way out occurred.

"Could've gone off with Sora, but _no_, I just _had_ to atone for all the horrible things I did. Couldn't let bygones be bygones…" Riku kicked a nearby pebble, watching it fall into the festering pit of Heartless. For a place of light, Kingdom Hearts was awfully dark, with lots and lots of Heartless.

Riku practically jumped out of his skin as he heard a soft thud behind him. He quickly grabbed the wooden sword at his belt and turned around, making a powerful downward slash. However, after this new arrival didn't dissipate like the Heartless, Riku rather belatedly realized the newcomer to be Mickey, who was clutching at his head.

"OW! This is exactly why I didn't leave my Keyblade here. Every time, you go and hit me!"

"Well it's not like it's all my fault!" Riku protested. "If you managed to land in front of me, I might not hit you." Mickey simply responded with a vacant glare, asking silently what difference that would make. For all that wisdom and power of his, Mickey wasn't the most logical person in the world. Granted, this illogic he possessed was what allowed him to search for a way out of Kingdom Hearts. Had he been logical like Riku, he would have simply resigned himself to the impending oblivion.

"Well…" Mickey began, ready to leave behind the recent altercation, "I've found a way out!"

"Really?" Riku exclaimed. It was impossible. The place was sealed, but if Mickey said there was a way out, there was a way out.

"You betcha. Mickey then looked up into the blackness. Somewhere beyond Riku's vision, there was a ceiling, concealed within the shadow. Perhaps…

"Do we go through some sort of ceiling exit?"

"What? No!" Mickey shook his head fervently. "Kingdom Hearts doesn't exactly have a ceiling anyway."

"So then, how do we get out?"

"Well, this may sound at least a little crazy, but I think that the problem is that we've been looking for a way out." Riku cast a confused glance the king's way, so Mickey then explained. "Maybe we're supposed to go further in." Riku's stare became rather blank as he attempted to wrap his mind around the inverted logic. Mickey simply sighed.

"Okay, now, as you know, Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all worlds, right?" Riku nodded in affirmation. "Well, this means that all hearts originate from within Kingdom Hearts. Yet somehow, these hearts wind up as completely different entities, independent altogether from Kingdom Hearts. Now, if you really stop and think about that, what's wrong with the picture?" Riku stopped to think for a bit before risking a guess.

"Well, how do the hearts of worlds become independent of Kingdom Hearts?"

"Exactly!" The king yelled, drawing more than a few glances from the dormant Heartless below. "There isn't any way shown. Yet as we know, new hearts are created by the second, whether for people or for worlds. Yet we haven't seen any hearts just flying out of this place, have we?" Mickey didn't wait for a response. "Of course not. My theory is, we've only sealed off the external entrances to Kingdom Hearts, which might have coincidentally served as exits when open. Speaking of which, Kingdom Hearts was closed almost all the time anyway."

"That would mean that there has to be an exit inside!" Riku blurted out the revelation a bit prematurely of when the king wanted him to, but Mickey took it in stride, nodding sagely.

"Precisely. There is an exit within Kingdom Hearts. And I propose that this exit would be…" Mickey waved his finger a bit before pointing straight at the center of the pit of Heartless, where the concentration of the monsters was so great the area appeared as simply a solid shadow. "There! The exit from Kingdom Hearts is Kingdom Hearts itself."

"So… how do we use Kingdom Hearts to get out?"

The king stared blankly again at him, and simply shrugged before leaping haphazardly into the pit.

End flashback

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Riku chuckled slightly as he reminisced. He must have slain a thousand Heartless fighting his way to the center of the pit. Each swing of the wooden sword took out a dozen of the tightly packed Heartless. By then he had stopped using the other, much darker sword Ansem had bestowed upon him.

Riku closed his eyes, going from one darkness to another, checking his bearings. He sensed the area around him and as soon as he gained confidence that he was still going the right way, began to go forward again. Before he even finished his first stride he felt it. A malignant force watching him, targeting him.

A slight smirk formed on Riku's lips as he prepared himself for battle.

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Author's Blurb- Because notes just aren't good enough.

Well, I guess I should apologize for taking so long to update. You see, I decided to stop this a while ago. What changed my mind? Well, after getting a review, I looked back to see how horribly written this was, only to find that it, well, wasn't. So I'm trying to regain the form I had for this, so that I can improve on it and truly become a better writer. That, and this chapter was halfway done a long while ago anyway, so I figured, what the heck, why not go for it.

Remember, a reviewed chapter is a happy chapter, and an incoherently flamed chapter is a laughing chapter.


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